Taking a year off from big game hunting

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jim in Anchorage

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45 years now fall has meant getting a deer/moose/sheep/bear etc to me. Hard hunts sometimes weeks long. Cutting up and hauling out 100s of lbs of meat.
Kicking back this year no big game. Just wing shooting grouse. woodcock, and ptarmigan. Show up at my hunting grounds at 8am or 9 or so. Not at all if it's raining. Day pack with Gatorade and slim jims for a rest. No pressure to produce [get one this year?]
Pluck my birds on the spot. Make a fire enjoy the pure joy of being in the woods in fall.
I guess what I'm saying is sometimes the simplest hunts can be the best
 
I agree. As we get older, killing something becomes less important. It becomes more important to me to enjoy the camaraderie of my hunting buddies and just enjoy nature.

Besides, as you pointed out the bigger the game, the more work it becomes once its dead. It sounds like you have a good plan.

Laphroaig
 
Spot on laphroaig. Living in Alaska and having friends outside who think I'm a guide [not even close] I plan and set up hunts and go with them and I always say do not shoot a moose in a swamp. They always do. So I [as the "guide"] need to get 1500 lbs of Moose out of 8 feet of muck.
Done with that.
I think as we age [and see the grim reaper] enjoying our time is front and center. If that's just enjoying time in the woods vs knocking off a 45 inch sheep so be it
 
I'm passing on my annual bear hunt this year. I had a pretty serious injury in April 2014 and did my bear hunt in Nov 2014 anyway. We hunt a lot of swamps and pretty tough terrain. Physically it really took a toll on me, plus I didn't like the fact that I was slowing my hunting buddies down on the drives.

The injury I sustained is permanent, so at 36 years old (and in good shape), my future hunting trips are going to have to be tailored around it. I'm a LEO and I've even been thinking about getting out of this line of work. Truth be told my wife owns a very successful business so I could always go work for her, I just don't want to sit behind a desk for the rest of my life!

Anyway, back to the subject. I'm still getting my deer tag this year but only because I can hunt in my backyard and drag out my bounty with the quad. If I don't have any success I really don't care, I'm mainly going out for some time in my stand.

I'm most looking forward to shooting some tree rats though. My best friend and I wander through the woods with suppressed 22's and just have a good time. No pressure if I don't get anything. Very little time spent in gutting.
 
Been there, done that. I stopped deer & hog hunting for 7 years because duck, dove and quail hunting was more fun. And I had a trained dog for retrieving etc.

However, after 7 years I got the bug again and went back to deer hunting.

Variety is the spice of life ... and I like spicy stuff.
 
I thought I was going to slow down too. But I've got a wife and kids who are going full tilt so it's back to the salt mines for me this season.;) Even with that being said I don't hit it as hard as used to. I don't feel like I need to hunt every day of the season and some mornings I'll sleep in when I'm getting really tired. Also like Jim mentioned I am not keen on killing a big critter in one of those mission impossible locations anymore.
 
Yea, work has consumed my bg seasons for the last 3 seasons but hopefully I get back this year.
 
I thought I was going to slow down too. But I've got a wife and kids who are going full tilt so it's back to the salt mines for me this season. Even with that being said I don't hit it as hard as used to. I don't feel like I need to hunt every day of the season and some mornings I'll sleep in when I'm getting really tired. Also like Jim mentioned I am not keen on killing a big critter in one of those mission impossible locations anymore.
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Yes H&H but teaching your daughters [ I guess you have 2?] to hunt would be a pure joy. To pass on our knowledge of hunting [or fishing or woodcraft or just how to make a fire] to the next generation is the greatest feeling in the world
 
Our whitetail population is way down (or was last year anyway) so I'm flirting with the notion of all small game, all the time this season. I don't mind getting skunked for deer (I hunt with a longbow from the ground on public land) BUT I want to at least see some within range.

Ohio's deer hunting regs seem very poacher friendly - if they are trying to seriously reduce deer numbers - mission accomplished.

On the other hand, we have lots of squirrels. :)
 
I still hunt the whitetails but don't get up at 3:30 am and don't climb the ridges in my 70's.I take an afternoon seat behind a haybale and watch the edge of the woods.I still manage to take some does and the occassional buck.I just enjoy getting out there and talking hunting with the other hunters.
 
LOL. I generally pass up deer with the thought, "Do i really want to spend the next hour field dressing and dragging, and then 3-4 hours chopping it up into portion sized pieces?"


I always say do not shoot a moose in a swamp.
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...and never shoot an elk unless you're within a mile of the road... and, preferably, uphill from it.
 
As an old timer buddy of mine likes to say when asked about shot placement on an elk.

"Darn close to the road!" :D
 
I guess I'm blessed because thirty yards out my backdoor and I'm deer hunting, for me it's "hunting" not killing so no pressure to get anything. Sometimes I just sit and watch Bambi;)
 
The second moose I shot was uphill about 70 yards from a spot I could back the truck into. We cut some poles and winched it right into the truck's bed.

It surely doesn't often work out like that, though.
 
Be sure to get tags and carry a centerfire handgun or slugs. The deer don't tell time. Your description of hunting is how my Montana relatives hunt deer and elk. They never go hungry!
I don't "hunt"deer, I just shoot them... Typically out the kitchen window while refilling my coffee cup!
 
While I appreciate what you are saying, it is just the opposite for me. After 5 years of being disabled from osteoarthritis, I now have two new knees and two new hips, and have "filled up my dance card" as my friend says - Wyoming for mule deer and Pronghorn, SD for deer, MN for deer and then Texas for hogs next January. (also fitting in a trip to Disneyworld with the 6 grandchildren...) Actually, I know it's gonna hurt, but at my age this might be my last year for all this...
 
Well it's not all old age to me. As the late Ann Landers said " wake up and smell the coffee." I miss some world class bird hunting because the gota get a moose attitude eats up my fall.
Time to just enjoy hunting,
 
At 70 yrs. old, we need to adjust out perspectives I guess. I still get up daily and check hog traps, fill deer feeders, and do all the chores that need to be done on a recreational property....along with a little fishing a lot of the mornings. I can feel the age creeping in on me and can look forward to a place where I won't be able to keep up with it all. When we get to that point finally, I guess that is where we just stare in space and dream about all the experiences we had in life.
 
I miss some world class bird hunting because the gota get a moose attitude eats up my fall.
Time to just enjoy hunting,
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Ruffed Grouse hunting was and will always be my first love in hunting but times have changed. A decimated bird population has made me into a deer hunter and my own land has enough to keep us happy.
 
Ruffed Grouse hunting was and will always be my first love in hunting but times have changed. A decimated bird population has made me into a deer hunter and my own land has enough to keep us happy.
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For me it was rabbits, and now it is squirrels.
 
Around 1990 I decided not to go deer hunting that year.
I have hunted every year since and hope to this year also. However I will have a torn rotator cuff repaired at the end of Aug, or beginning of Sept. and the Doc says three months recovery.:uhoh:
 
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